Did you know there was a guy who jumped into a 200° F hot pot at Yellowstone to rescue his dog? When they pulled him out his last words were, “That was stupid. How bad am I? That was a stupid thing I did.” When they pulled off one of his shoes, the skin of his foot came off with it. That’s one of many things I learned in the perfect coffee-table book Death in Yellowstone, a gift from my brother-in-law.

My mom’s parents, Owen and Verona Slaugh, spent time in Yellowstone on their honeymoon in 1940 –